Parents

Consideration of Applications

2. UTC Swindon will consider all applications for places. Where there are fewer than the published admission number for any relevant age group, UTC Swindon will offer places to all those who have applied.

Procedures where UTC Swindon is oversubscribed (14-16 provision)

3. Where the number of applications for admission is greater than the published admissions number, applications will be considered against the criteria set out below.

4. After the admission of students with statements of Special Educational Needs where UTC Swindon is named on the statement, the criteria will be applied in the order in which they are set out below:

a) Looked after children and previously looked after children

b) Remaining places will be allocated randomly within each group as follows:

(i) 30% of places allocated to applicants resident at postcodes in Group A, which will include all postcodes in:

SN5, SN7, SN9, SN10, SN25, GL7

(ii) 30% of places allocated to applicants resident at postcodes in Group B, which will include all postcodes in:

SN1, SN2, SN6, SN8, SN11, SN26, OX18, GL8

(iii) 30% of places allocated to applicants resident at postcodes in Group C, which will include all postcodes in:

SN3, SN4, SN15, SN16, RG17, OX12

(iv) Remaining places will be allocated to pupils living outside the areas listed in (i) – (iii) above with those living closest to the front gates of the UTC (as the crow flies) being admitted.

c) The deadline for receipt of applications for entry to Year 10 and Year 12 in September 2014 is midnight on 31st January 2014.

5. If any of the groups (A,B or C) are undersubscribed, these places will be distributed equally to the groups that are oversubscribed. Places will then be offered using random allocation.

6. Applications from sets of twins or other children from multiple births will be treated as individual applicants, which may result in one multiple sibling being allocated a place under random allocation, and another not being allocated a place.

7. The random allocation will be independently verified.

Definitions

8. In determining which applicants live closest to the UTC, distances from home will be measured in a direct line between the front door of the child’s home and a central point within the main UTC building (using a computerised mapping system).

9. In the event that it is not possible to distinguish between applicants for the final available place, such as in the case of students who live in the same block of flats, then the final place will be made through random allocation.

10. The applicant’s home address is the address where the applicant is registered with the local health surgery.

11. Previously looked after children are children who have been looked after, but have ceased to be so because they have been adopted (or have become subject to a residence order or special guardianship order).

Procedures for Admission to the Sixth Form (Years 12 and 13)

12. Swindon UTC operates a Sixth Form with a total of 300 students.

13. In 2014 and 2015 UTC Swindon will admit up to 150 external applicants to Year 12, using criteria for admission as outlined above.

14. From 2016 this will end. From that date 150 places overall will be available in Year 12 (the year 12 ‘capacity’) for UTC Swindon’s own pupils progressing from Year 11.

15. UTC Swindon will not admit external applicants to its Sixth Form unless undersubscribed by pupils progressing from its own Year 11 and in such circumstances the same academic entry requirements as for pupils already on roll in UTC Swindon will apply. If there are more applications from external applicants than places available, places will be allocated in line with the oversubscription criteria in paragraph 4.

16. UTC Swindon will publish at the beginning of the academic year prior to admission (e.g. September 2013 for those seeking admission in September 2014) academic entry criteria for the post-16 section of UTC Swindon based upon GCSE/technical or vocational qualification grades or other measures of prior attainment. Applicants from the UTC Swindon Year 11 who have met this criterion will have an automatic right of transfer to the post-16 section of the UTC.

Operation of Waiting Lists

17. UTC Swindon will operate a waiting list (in both phases). Where in any year UTC Swindon receives more applications for places than there are places available, a waiting list will operate until the end of the term finishing in December. This will be maintained by UTC Swindon and it will be open to any parent to ask for his or her child’s name to be placed on the waiting list, following an unsuccessful application.

18. Applicants’ positions on the waiting list will be in accordance with the oversubscription described in paragraph 4. Where places become vacant they will be allocated to children on the waiting list in accordance with the ranking.

Arrangements for admitting pupils to other year groups, including to replace any pupils who have left UTC Swindon.

19. With regards to the admission arrangements relating to applications submitted for years other than the normal year of entry, UTC Swindon will consider all such applications and if there is a place available in the relevant year group, offer a place to the applicant. If more applications are received than there are places available, the oversubscription criteria described in paragraph 4 will apply.

Administration of the Admissions Procedures

20. In 2014, the first year of admissions, UTC Swindon will opt out of the Local Authority’s (Swindon Borough Council’s) coordinated admissions scheme to run its own admissions process for both stages (Admission at 14 – 16 and Admission at 16 – 19). Thereafter UTC Swindon will use Swindon Borough Council’s coordinated admissions scheme for admission at 14 – 16, but will run its own scheme for the Sixth Form.

Appeals

21. There will be a right of appeal to an Independent Appeals Panel for internal pupils refused transfer and external applicants refused admission.

22. The appeals process will be run in line with statutory duties of the appeals code.